Goodness. . .

". . .but from now on my life, my whole life, no matter what hapens to me, every second of it, is not only not meaningless as it was before, but it has the incontestable meaning of the goodness I have the power to put into it!"

Phew. . .the last line in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

I just finished it, all 868 pages, and the quote just about sums up the whole book. . .the unceasing quest for the meaning of life put into the nutshell last line.  I am glad it's off my bucket list and I think I'd now like to shift gears and a few centuries to read this year's Pulitzer winner. . .Jennifer Egan's  A Visit from the Goon Squad.  I like my plate filled with diversity thank you very much.  And speaking of goodness and plates, etc., etc.,

Here's a small painting that has been getting me back to my roots of still life, but in oil.  A tiny 6 x 8 of two yummy pears of goodness.  I've now set up three workstations in my studio so that I can earnestly work on more than one painting in a serious way and that certainly spells "goodness" to me.  

Another thing that spells goodness is of the four-legged variety:

This painting is in progress. . .such a sweet expression that begs to be painted, don't you think?  You can see my orange underpainting at the bottom, along with a few white charcoal marks to help me find my way.  The goodness that pets bring into our lives cannot be overstated and it seems quite soulful to paint their loving expressions. . .that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Look for more about this painting as it comes to completion. . .

And here's even more goodness. . .the incredibly talented artist, Matthew Innis, has been blogging about this year's Certificate of Excellence winners in celebration of the 13th Annual Art of the Portrait Conference in Atlanta.  His blog is http://underpaintings.blogspot.com/.

His goodness extends to telling a little about each winner and showing their paintings in a way that we sometimes miss when just viewing. . .the backstory sheds light and meaty insight.  Thank you Matthew for highlighting these winners! 

As we wind this week down to Good Friday and the Easter weekend, perhaps it's a lovely time to be exploring themes of goodness and where we find it in our individual lives.  Or even how we go about creating it.  For, as Tolstoy wrote, we have the power to put it into our lives.  I do hope you have an abundance of it. . .